This is a fresh translation by S. Ram Mohan and Robert Butler, the original being that of KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr.

The serialization of a translation and commentary by J. Jayaraman, of Ozhivil Odukkam by KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr, was first begunin the July 2004 issue of Mountain Path. I had given this under Ozhivil Odukkam from Feb 2013 to April 2013. The translation continued in three issues ending in April 2005 at Verse 38. The current translation is is an entirely new endeavor in which thetext has been translated by the above two.

(Earlier to all these, Munagala Venkataramiah had made an unpublished translation that later appeared in four 1988 issues.)

The Text and Its author:

Ozhivil Odukkam by KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr is a 15th century Tamizh work in 253 verses. Its main assertion, which it drives home by means of numerous terse and pithy illustrations, often drawn from everyday life, is that the non dual reality is unattainablein the mental world of the body-bound consciousness, and that, to attain it, or rather to realize it as our true nature, we mustabandon all concepts, whether of Vedanta, Siddhanta or anything else, relying entirely on the inner witness of our own consciousness. The work is clearly written from the perspective of one schooled in the philosophy of Saiva Sddhanta, a circumstance which is compounded by the fact that the only available commentary, by Tirupporur Chidambara Swamigal, an eminent Tamizh poet andscholar, leans heavily towards Siddhanta terminology rather than emphasizing the Advaitic aspect of he verses. However, such considerations do not find in the final analysis detract from the fact that Ozhivil Odukkam is a great work of Advaita, with manyparallels to the teachings of Sri Bhagavan Himself.

It is a work which advocates the path of Self Knowledge as the means to liberation, very much in the manner of Sri RamanaMaharshi's Ulladu Narpadu (with certain reservations), and there are a number of verses which recall the latter both in styleand content. It mercilessly lampoons false gurus with their pedantry and posturing, and warns against the ego which onlyperpetuates its own existence in its ridiculous and self defeating attempts to transcend itself. As for the style, the text is terse and vivid, full of striking images which are deliberately designed to jar and shock the consciousness of the reader outof its comfortable ego based frame of reference.

Ozhivil Odukkam is written entirely within the frame of reference of the philosophical school of Saiva Siddhanta. However,there can be no doubt that the point of the work, as evidenced in each of its 253 verses, is not to inculcate the principlesof Saiva Siddhanta , but rather the opposite. It is to demonstrate that Saiva Siddhanta, Vedanta or any other belief systemfor that matter, is powerless aid the disciple in taking the final step towards union with the divine at which point all mind basedconstructs must be transcended and abandoned. This endeavor is exemplified in the very title of the work, which can be translated as 'Subsiding into the Self through the elimination (of obstacles i.e. the personal consciousness, the ego.]', or,taking a slightly different grammatical interpretation, 'Ceaseless abidance in the Self.']. Paradoxically, all those teachings whichare in the beginning aids to realization, in terms of preparing and purifying the consciousness of the disciple, become in the endobstacles and must be left behind, a point which is given much emphasis at several points in the text itself.

(There is one Tamizh commentary by Tirupporur Chidambara Swamigal, that has been published by Mullai Padippagam, Chennai.Here, Sri Ramalinga VaLLalAr's commentary on the verse 1 alone - which he has written - is given. Recently, a commentaryin Tamizh has been published by Sri Sriram of Ramana Bhakta Samajam of Chennai 33.)

(There is one Tamizh commentary by Tirupporur Chidambara Swamigal, that has been published by Mullai Padippagam, Chennai.Here, Sri Ramalinga VaLLalAr's commentary on the verse 1 alone - which he has written - is given. Recently, a commentaryin Tamizh has been published by Sri Sriram of Ramana Bhakta Samajam of Chennai 33.)

Subramaniam Sir

Are u aware of how many verses Saint Ramalingaswamigal has covered ? Is it just one verse ?

Logged

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? - Buddha

The biography of the author gives us clues as to why the influence of Saiva Siddhanta should be so clearly in evidence in his work.According to the Lexicon of Tamizh literature by Kamil Zvelebil, the author's monastic name was Sambandha Saranalayar (C. 1400 -1450?), an eminent Saivite who composed Saiva Siddhanta works such as Tattva Vilakkam, before changing his allegiance to Aikyavada Saivism. and his name to KaNNudiaya VaLLalAr, in which guise he became a great spiritual leader, teacher and poet, and, of course, composed the great work Ozhivil Odukkam in which Vedanta and Siddhanta are reconciled. From the foregoing,we might expect that not only would the author tend to speak from the viewpoint of Siva Siddhanta, but that he would continueto promote, up to a certain point, positive Saivite values, such as paths to liberation, charya, kriya, yoga. However he makes itclear that none of the foregoing has any place in the process of the final merger with the Self, Sivam. In fact he devotes a chapterto the elimination or eradication of each of these in turn. His condemnation of yoga and its associated practices is particularlydamning.

Other accounts of the author's life are numerous and contradictory. The earliest dates for him have been given as 1380-1476. Others give much a later date, the early decades of the 17th century. In one account he is said to have been born in a wealthyfamily of Sirkazhi, a town near the east coast of Tamizh Nadu, 20 km. from Chidambaram. It is also referred to as Thonipuram,Boat City, in view of the legend that Lord Siva used it as a boat when a flood engulfed the earth. The city was famously the birthplaceof the great Saiva Saint Jnana Sambandhar. It is said that whenever VaLLlAr's family visited the temple complex, they paidhomage at the shrine of Jnana Sambandhar twice, burning camphor and offering praises, once as they entered, and again as theyleft the temple complex, and that thus it was a great love for, and devotion to the saint grew up within the young boy, which happened in the course of time ripened into realization and union with Lord Siva. No other details appear to be known. One mightspeculate that like Sri Ramana Maharshi, he was one of the rare souls who, due to his spiritual maturity, was able to attainrealization at an early age without the aid of an embodied guru.

It seems likely that KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr, from the tenor of his verses, would have belonged to one of the Siddhanta monastic orders, possibly as the head of a math, or at least as a high ranking spiritual teacher and preceptor. However his allegiance to thesaint Jnana Sambandhar, whom he claims as his only guru, suggests that he realized that the intellectual and physical rigorsof the monastic existence could not bear fruit without the qualities of self surrender and devotion, exemplified in the lives of the great saints of Tamizh Nadu. One version has it that he was the son of Meykanda Sivachariar, an Acharya of the SaivaSiddhantam School, and that he abandoned this path in favor of the path of direct realization.

On the surface level, Ozhivil Odukkaam, after an opening chapter which covers a dazzling array of advaitic topics in no particularorder, delineates the path of the mature disciple, as he becomes ready for divine grace, finds his guru, transcends the traditionalpaths of charya, kriya, and yoga, renounces the world inwardly and optionally outwardly, and merges finally with Sivam.

However, the whole text is so deeply imbued with the aim of conveying some sense of supra mental state of union with the Real,and of awakening in the reader a desire and hunger for this state, that any sense of narrative or progression is entirely transcended. Ozhivil Odukkam is like a many faceted jewel, each facet reflecting the truth in its own sparkling and original manner.

The text is accompanied by an extensive "urai" or prose commentary, written by Tiruporur Chidambara Swamigal. His guruwas Kumara Devar, a Kannada king who famously renounced the world to become the disciple of the renowned SantalingaSwamigal. (See my post originally from the article of David Godman and others.). Both of these wrote works which numberamong the most important advaitic texts ever written in the language of Tamizh. Before becoming the disciple of KumaraDeva, Chidambara Swamigal had become an accomplished scholar. The encyclopaedia of Tamizh literature, Apitana Chintamani refers to him as Ilakkana Vidwan - a scholar language and letters. It is not surprising therefore he wrote a numberof commentaries, including several of the works of his guru's guru, Santalinga Swamigal, and the one is on Ozhivil Odukkam,which was written at the behest of Santalinga Swamigal.

The commentary is excellent in many respects, but it occupies itself in some details with Siddhanta philosophy and metaphysics,somewhat to the detriment of the advaitic content of the work. The difficulty of the text itself, and the complexities of the commentary appear to have led on occasion to the mistaken belief that the work is more concerned with minutiae of Siddhantaphilosophy, rather than the issue of non dual Self Realization, which is absolutely not the case.

As can be seen from the foregoing accounts, there are few indisputable facts about the life of KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr. Howeverit seems clear that he possessed a life long allegiance to Jnana Sambandhar as his guru, and that this allegiance caused him at some point to reject the philosophical and scholastic norms of Saiva Siddhantam in favor of a direct gnosis of the nature of the Self, Reality, inspired by his guru.

Previous editions and translations:

IN 1851, Ozhivil Odukkam was first published in Tamizh, along with the "urai" - commentary of Chidambara Swamigal, by theTamizh Siddha Ramalinga Swamigal, called as VaLLalAr, author of hymns which are collectively known as the Tiru Arutpa.The text was next published in the early years of the 20th century. The copy used for this translation was published inMadras in 1908, comprising the text and original commentary only. Subsequent editions have followed this pattern, givingthe text and original commentary only. Recently a new Tamizh edition has been published, authored by a devotee of Sri Ramana and Murugnar, writing under the name of Mugavi KIanna Murugan Adimai, consisting of the text in Tamizh anda commentary in modern Tamizh, which incorporates elements from the original commentary and draws upon the works ofSri Bhagavan and Muruganar to provide illustrative examples in support of its explanation of the text. This is available fromSri Ramanasramam Book Depot. The only English translation I know, of is that by Sri Munagala S. Venkataramiah (later Sri Ramananda Saraswati), the compiler of Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. The typescript, with a short introductory prefaceby Sadhu Arunahala (formerly Major A.W. Chadwick), is kept in the Sri Ramanasramam archives. It appears to be in a draft formrequiring further editing, and was never published, although, as indicated in the preface, the authors clearly expected it to bepublished by the Asramam, as were other favorites of Sri Bhagavan such as Tripura Rahasyam and Advaita Bodha Deepika both of which were translated wholly or in part by Swami Ramananda Saraswati.

Reference to Ozhivil Odukkam are scattered throughout the works which record devotees' conversation with Sri Bhagavan.And their reminiscences to Him also. Smt. T.R. Kanakammal, in her recollections, Ninavil NiRaindhavai, tells an interesting story which illustrates the regard in which Ozhivil Odukkam, as a work of Advaita, was held by both Sri Bhagavan and Muruganar.She tells how one day Muruganar was explaining the meaning of certain verses from Ozhivil Odukkam to her in the presence of a visiting Swami from Kovilur Math. First he would explain the verse from the point of view of its Saiva Siddhanta based commentary, and then according to the teaching of Sri Bhagavan. At some point of time, the Swami interposed, asking whetherthe latter interpretation was from the point of view of Vedanta or Siddhanta. The question seemed to take Muruganar bysurprise, and he replied, 'I do not know Siddhantam, nor do I know Vedantam. All i now is 'Ramanantam'.

It is clear also that Sri Bhagavan actively encouraged Muruganar to write his own commentary on Ozhvil Odukkam fromVedanta standpoint. The work was never started. However the fact that this request was made and tentatively acceptedby Muruganar is clear from two prefatory verses to the unwritten 'urai' which are recorded in the eighth volume of SriRamana Jnana Bodham, the portmanteau collection of Muruganar's unpublished verses. We quote these two verses below,from Sri Ramana Jnana Bodham, Verses 1832-33:

Ozhivil Odukkam reveals the ultimate Reality which remains ever attained. In order that this work may achieve the richnessof being adorned by a vedantic commentary, I will, with grace abounding, ascertain the true intention of its author,KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr, and I will bring out a commentary, penetrating his work in the light of pure consciousness, he state of remaining awake in the Heart.

My Lord, who ruled me in such a way that I should no longer, through delusion, fall into error, commanded me to write avedantic commentary on the illustrious work, Ozhivil Odukkam. He Himself let me know its correct meaning, remaining in my heart so that His command is executed.

At times, in translating Ozhivil Odukkam, I had the sense that the six centuries separating Sri Ramana Maharshi and KaNNudaiyaVaLLalAr had telescoped down, and the two were revealed as one in their timeless, transcendent state. It seems that VaLLalAris talking about Sri Ramana Himself in His final years in Verse 228, describing the Jnana Guru:

Dwelling detached from a body, weakened through its effortless rejection of worldly desires; that last residue of spent karmalingering about Him like the scent of faded flowers; His gaze where ever dwells the joyous bliss of freedom from the senses;His divine countenance -- these images shall never leave my heart.

Introduction completed - Translation of the verses with commentary will continue..

After a long introduction, Robert Butler and S. Ram Mohan gives the verses in prose.

Prefatory Verse:

Placing upon his head the mighty lotus feet of Jnanasambandhar, the beneficient king of gurus,m who defeated the Jains and Buddhists in debate, and thus attaining realization, he (KaNNudaiya VaLLalar expounded this work, OzhivilOdukkam, so that all devotees might consume the honey of bliss which welled up in his heart upon the destructionof the ego self.

This verse affirms that, having placed on his head the holy lotus feet of the Sadguru, Jnana Sambandhar, the vanquisherof foes, external and internal, the author, rejoicing in the bliss that wells up upon the extinction of the ego, wrote this workOzhivil Odukkam, for all those who are it to experience that same bliss. Jnana Sambandhar, whom the author holds as hisSadguru, had vanquished the Buddhists and Jains in various debates as external foes. Jnana Sambandhar famously reconvertedthe Pandyan King back to Saivism after he had been converted to the Jaina faith, which was prominent in Tamizh Nadu inhis time, an incident which is celebrated in Padigam 39 of of third volume of Tirumurai Canons, in which he rails at lengthagainst the beliefs and practices of the Jains. We may also take it that the internal foes that prevent the personal self,the Jiva, from merging with the Self, Sivam, are also meant. The verse further affirms that KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr, havingexperienced the supreme bliss that welled up with his heart, upon the extinction of the ego, composed this work out ofhis great compassion in order that all devotees might attain the same state.

TEXT:

The raised hand of Him who pours forth His blissful compassion through the destruction of my personal self, is the batonof Truth, flourished to call a halt to the dance of of the Vedas and Agamas. It is the crown upon the head of the Mountainof the six chakras. It is the Sun, rising to dispel the darkness which obscures my consciousness.

KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr starts the work with this obeisance to his sadguru Jnana Samabndhar. As a child of three, JnanaSambandhar was taken by his father to the Thoniappar Temple at Sirkazhi. Leaving the child on the steps of the templetank, his father went down to bathe. Unable to see his father, who was immersed in water, the child began to cryfor him, whereupon the parents of the universe, Lord Siva and his consort Parvati, appeared there. The divine Motherfed him with milk from her breast in a golden dish. Then the divine couple disappeared. When his father rose fromthe tank and saw the traces of milk around his mouth, he asked the child who gave him milk. The blessed child pointedwith his raised finger to the sky (...pointing with one finger of his divine hand graciously raised up to the heavens...Periya Puranam V. 1976.) and sang the famous decad beginning todudaiya chevian -- He who wears ear rings at his ears,which extols the grace of Siva.

The raised finger of Jnana Sambandhar is then compared to the baton of dancing master, which he flourishes to call a haltthe dancers who circle about him, and to single out for praise the one who is the greatest among them. In a similar fashion,Jnana Sambandhar calls a halt to all the myriad conflicting belief systems that swirl about in the minds of disciples, singlingout Lord Siva alone as the Supreme Reality. These belief systems are the numerous philosophical systems that are enshrinedin, or are elucidation of the Veda and Agamas and which must be transcended if the aspirant is to attain final liberation.

Finally the pointing finger is referred to as the crown upon the head of the Mountain of the six chakars. The chakras are thesix bodily centers, starting with muladhara at the base of the spine and ending with the sahasrara at the crown of the head.The term mountain is used because it is he practice of yogis to refer to the central pranic channel of the body, the sushumna nadi as Mount Meru, and the left and right spiraling ida and pinagala nadis as the sun and moon revolving about it. Thepoint is that the transcendent state here alluded to as being accessible through the grace of Jnana Sambandhar, entirely transcends the physical body and its sphere of objective experience, hence it is alluded to as an abhishekam -- crown uponthe head of the six chakras.

In this verse, we meet for the first time the word "ozhivu", here translated as 'destruction'. This refers to the removal of the obstacles that obstruct the aspirant's quest for Self Realization, the ego, and the world of mind and senses whichis founded upon it, and which prevent Sadhaka from subsiding (odukkam) into his true nature as the Self or Sivam.

What course of study might (the mature disciple) adopt to achieve loss of his personal self, if the Sadguru does not casthis glance (of grace) upon him? He is like an elephant in musth, who becomes quite still, without the slightest tremor,when in his dream the enduring great lion that is the Sadguru appears before him on his path.

This verse states that the destruction of ego cannot be achieved by the aspirant unless by the grace of the Guru. The versepresents us with the image of an elephant dreaming it is in musth, charging wildly through the forest, as we may imagine, until a powerful lion, its traditional nemesis, appears on its path, and it comes to a sudden halt and stands completely motionless,transfixed by the lion's gaze. In the same way, the personal self, the Jiva, rushes about wildly in the dreamlike world of the mindand senses until it is brought to stillness by the glance of the Guru, and comes to rest in its true nature as the Self, the state ofkevalam in which the triad of knower, known and knowledge is entirely transcended.

Howeve long and arduous the sadhana, the sadhaka must abandon all his efforts and surrender himself to the Guru, who is the embodiment of divine Grace. It should be noted, however, that KaNNudaiya VaLLalAr, like Sri Ramana Himself, did not, as far as we know, follow any living Guru, but attributed his realization entirely to Jnana Sambandhar who lived several hundredyears before his time.

The author uses the phrase "tan izhappu" - the loss of himself, oneself, to denote the state of total loss of ego, the same phrase as that employed by Sri Bhagavan in Verse 27 of Ulladu Narpadu, where He says, 'Without investigating that place,in which the 'I' arises, how can the loss of oneself, in which the 'I' does not arise, be achieved?' It is significant that the emphasis of this verse is not on gaining oneness with Sivam, the common goal (though variously defined) of all schools of Saiva Siddhantam, but on 'losing' the personal self or ego, upon which that Sivam is gained, as it were, by default.

Verses 3 to 6 delineate the qualities of the impostor, false guru, and highlight the inherent dangers of following him.

Text - Verse 3:

Do not associate with those gurus who are impostors. (trying to impress you with their) actions. They are like laborerswho work for wages, or merchants who sell and barter goods. As for the true, the supreme guru, he is unchanging liketime, yet casting his gaze (upon his disciple) he establishes him (in the non dual state beyond objective consciousness).There are no words to praise him. He is beyond the reach of the mind.

This verse warns against association with these false gurus whose actions and motives are not different from those of laborers who work for wages, or merchants who ply a trade for profit. Again the paramount importance of the gaze of theguru, one of the six forms of initiation to be mentioned in later verses, is emphasized. Since the guru, in his state of onenesswith the Self, is beyond the reach of the mind, uses his gaze as a kind of portal, as it were, to admit the light of the Self intothe illusory world of the disciple and dissolve away its false appearance of Reality.

In order to express the unchanging nature of the guru, the author compares him to time. Time presides over all the divisionsof time itself, the movements of the sun, moon and stars, and all the events which transpire in the phenomenal world, yet is touched by any of these. In the same way the true guru is the embodiment of Self, Sivam, which, though it involves the jiva in Maya and the round of rebirth and death, ultimately eliminating its impurities and leading to salvation, yet remains transcendentand unaffected by this apparent activity.

Text - Verse 4:

The teachings of those who are steeped in the delirium of the three deadly impurities are like in the incoherent ravings of a madman. They import them to the foolish, passing them off as wisdom. We are reminded of the story of the shepherd whojumped into the river, clutching a brood of bears who were being swept along by the flood, and was drowned along with them.

In this verse, the teachings of false gurus are compared to the 'incoherent ravings of a madman', which are passed off as wordsof wisdom. Both the false gurus who purvey such half baked instructions and the ignorant disciples who follow them willultimately meet with disaster. The author gives the example of a shepherd on the river bank who mistakes a brood of bears,which is being swept along in a flooding river, for sheep, and jumps into the river to save them. The bears in turn hold tightlyto the shepherd, assuming him to be some kind of boat or raft to keep them afloat, and as a result, both the shepherd and thebears are drowned. Similarly the would-be-guru is unable to recognize when disciples are immature and unsuitable, and the disciples, being immature, are unable to recognize that their would be guru is not qualified to teach them, leading to the ultimatediscomfiture of both.

'The three deadly impurities' referred to as Anavam, karma, and maya. These are the three impurities which in Saiva Siddhantamare held to obscure and delude the jiva, preventing it from attaining union with Sivam. Anavam is the obscuring principlewhich blinds the jiva to its true nature, as Sivam, and thus gives rise to the principle of egoism, the sense that it alone is responsiblefor, and in control of, its own actions. Karma consists of the ego based actions, performed by the jiva under the influence of Anavam and the experiencing of the consequences of those actions, which in turn gives rise to further actions, a cycle whichpropagate itself across innumerable births and Maya is that which causes the jiva to perceive the undifferentiated oneness of Sivam,as a world consisting of myriad discrete phenomena, existing separately from each other, and from the individual who witnessesthem.

Will a blind sifter of gold be called 'Kubera'? Can a ram discern and demonstrate the sweetness of sugarcane? Similarly,can we see any likeness between the guru who is the embodiment of grace and one who is incapable of establishing thedisciple in Mauna, beyond the thirty six tattvas?

A blind sifter of gold is one who earns his poor living by sifting spoil heaps and the likes for the particles of gold. Being blind, he is only able to identify the gold by touch. Kubera is the gold of wealth. The true Guru is like Kubera, surroundedby gold beyond measure, and the false guru is like the blind sifter, having to struggle to locate even a tiniest particle of it.The blindness of the sifter means that, rather than seeing the gold with his eyes, he has to feel for it with hands, just asthe unqualified guru, being unable to perceive the Truth directly has to resort to external means such as those specified onthe paths of chariya, kriya and yoga, which are discussed in later chapters.

In the second comparison the false guru is compared to a ram leading his flock into a field of sugarcane. The ram, when itenters the field of sugarcane will only on its bitter leaves. He neither has the knowledge of the sweet juice in the stem of the sugarcane, nor does he have the ability to bite through and crush the hard stem to obtain the sweet juice inside. Beinghimself unable to do so, he will not be able to educate the rest of the flock about the sweetness of sugarcane juice or themeans of obtaining it. Similarly the impostor guru is capable of introducing his disciples only to the externalities of spirtualdisciple, like he methods of worship and puja, and the practices specified on the path of chariya, kriya and yoga, which,as noted above, are discussed in later chapters. He will not be able to make them understand true spirituality, the knowledgeof the Self, like the sweet sugarcane juice, as he himself has not tasted it.

Chidambara Swamigal notes in his commentary that the mention of the ram implies a comparison with the elephant, who,unlike the ram, crushes the sugarcane to extract the sweet juices, and show his foal how to do likewise, just as the true guruis able to impart it to his disciples. He quotes Prabhu Linga Leela, Ch. 18, Verse 7, in illustration, 'He who sees the outer eyeis inferior; the realized jnani sees with the inner eye. In the same way, the elephant, on seeing a field of sugar cane, take thesweet juices, whilst ram eats only the bitter leaves.'

The thirty six tattvas are in Saiva Siddhanta metaphysics the components that make up the phenomenal universe, being the manifestation of the supreme consciousness, Parama Sivam. This supreme reality is only one, but has two aspects, the transcendent and the immanent. In manifestation consciousness first evolves into five universal, unlimited aspects of itself,called para tattvas, beginning with the Siva and Sakti tattvas.

Next to evolve is Maya tattvas, which veils this universal consciousness with the illusion of duality. In order to do this, it evolvesfive pure-impure tattvas, kala, niyati and so forth, each of which limits and makes finite one of the universal aspects representedby five pure tattvas. The result of this limitation is a separation of he universal subject-object into subject (aham, the 'I) and object (idam - the world), represented by the Purusha, the personal self and prakriti, its operative energy, which is the sourceof the remaining 24 impure tattvas, made up of inner organs of cognition, the organs of sense and action, and the subtle andgross elements.

It should be borne in mind here firstly that, even at the grossest level, the nature of this material universe is ultimately not other than Consciousness, and that at the most fundamental level that supreme consciousness remains in essence unchanging andundiminished.

The tattvas will be discussed further in later verses. However, the reader should be aware that the purpose of this work isto guide the reader towards a direct realization of the nature of the Reality which lies beyond all mental constructs, not toinculcate the principles of any religious or metaphysical system, whether it be that of Saiva Siddhanta, Advaita Vedanta orany other. For the purposes of understanding this work, the reader need only remember that the tattvas represent theillusory world of duality in which the individual self believes itself to be perceiving through the mind and senses, and interactingwith, an objective world independent of itself.

Alas, will they (the false gurus) ever free themselves from the error of prescribing to us how we may obtain the fruits ofunion (with Sivam), when they do not possess the evidence provided by their own consciousness? (Their disciples are like)strangers who do not know (where they are), wandering about, getting lost and suffering, after taking the directions to a place who has never been there himself.

This verse expresses the author's horror at seeing the disastrous condition into which the disciple is led by heeding the wrong guidance, of the false guru. The false guru, though he himself has not attained the state of union wit the divine,attempts to prescribe to the disciple how he can reach that state. Woe betide him ! Can these impostors ever becomefree of the great error of such misguidance? Even in the worldly plane, a stranger journeying on the instructions of an ignorant fellow traveler, who himself has never been to the place of destination, will certainly lose his way and come to grief. How much greater the harm that can come to someone on the spiritual plane from the attempts of the would be guruto convey to him a state of being which he has never experienced himself !

Know that only he is the Jnana Guru who with a glance brings the disciple to Absolute Stillness, having perceived (in him)the state of maturity wherein he becomes harmonized (with the Self) as that which is false gradually disappears, so thathe dissolves into the waves of the ocean of bliss of union (with the divine) in which he exists as Reality itself.

Having described the characteristics of the false guru, the author now speaks of the attributes of the true guru, the JnanaGuru. In his enlightened state, he is able both to recognize those disciples who are already experiencing a degree of blisswhich precedes the annihilation of the ego, and to establish them in that state by focusing the energy of grace upon them throughhis glance. The state of bliss which typically precedes final liberation is one in which the aspirant runs the risk of being caught upin, and overwhelmed by that state, mistaking it for liberation itself. At this point the guru fixes his gaze upon him so that he isnot agitated - pathaiyaamal paarkum, enabling him to merge in the state of the Self which is beyond even bliss.

The Tamizh phrase used to describe the evolving state of the mature devotee, - poka poka porunthi - becoming harmonized (withthe Self) as the false gradually disappears - describes the gradual process through which the mind is purified and made steadyprior to its final elimination in the state of realization. This phrase finds an echo in the worlds of Krishna (in Bhagavad Gita, 6.25):'Let him gain little by little (shanaih - shanaih) tranquility by means of reason controlled by steadiness and having fixed hismind on the Self, let him not think of anything else.

In Divine Silence, overflowing with the bliss of Sivam, the guru speaks (without speaking), like a honey bee regurgitating thenectar it has consumed into the honeycomb. For those (disciples) who at that time wait in attendance without any thought intheir minds, like the seasons which appear in due course, his worlds will constitute lofty tapas, or the import of Vedas.

A honeybee collects nectar from flowers and discharges into the honeycomb without contaminating it in any way, even thoughthe nectar is discharged only through its mouth. Similarly, the guru absorbs and transmits the knowledge of Sivam, free fromcontamination by his body, mind and senses. In due course, the supreme bliss or Jnana of the guru will surely manifest itselfas a glance of grace, a thought of love, words of instruction or by mere touch. This is movingly expressed by Sri Bhagavanin Akshara Manamalai Verse 63: 'Look at me, Think of me, Touch me! Ripen me and make me fit! Then be my master and rule me, O Arunachala!

Just as the seasons of the year silently bide their time, to manifest in due course, unaffected by the cycles of growth and decay that they cause, the grace of the guru, flowing in divine silence, will surely be granted to those disciples who patiently dwellin the service of master, unaffected by the changing conditions of their bodily incarnation. The phrase - 'without any thoughtin their minds' might be translated as 'free of all objective thought'. There can be no thought without an object, and whenthought turns upon itself, it subsides into pure being. Such is the state of the disciple who is ripe for divine grace. The presenceor absence of the spoken word, is not at issue in the authentic communication between guru and disciple. Sri Bhagavan eloquentlyexpresses the nature of this communication as follows: "Silence is ever-speaking; it is the perennial flow of language; it is interruptedby speaking. These words obstruct he mute language. There is electricity flowing in a wire. With resistance to its passage, it glows as a lamp or revolves as a fan. In the wire it remains as electric energy. Similarly also, Silence is the eternal flow of langage,obstructed by words." (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk NO. 246, 8th September 1936.